


your heart is your masterpiece

by persephonie



Series: Ever After High: The End [1]
Category: Ever After High
Genre: Character Study, Coda, Developing Relationship, F/F, Post-TV Special: Dragon Games (Ever After High)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonie/pseuds/persephonie
Summary: After the Evil Queen’s defeat, Apple White is left questioning what—or who—is left to play a part in her destiny.
Relationships: Darling Charming/Apple White
Series: Ever After High: The End [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925164
Comments: 4
Kudos: 82





	your heart is your masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-Dragon Games.

Apple White had always said, _If you know, you know._

It’s ironic now to think about that famous saying of hers, especially when it’s coming from someone who’d spent nearly her whole high school life believing she’d been destined to Prince Charming, only to find that her intended Charming had been a _princess_ all along.

It had been a doozy, alright. The weeks following Raven’s triumph over her own mother was spent picking up the pieces of truth, or what’s left of it. Apple had to come to terms with what this meant for her destiny, and the more she’d thought about it, the less it made sense. Everything had fallen apart; everything she’d hoped to protect and hold dear seemed to rip at the seams in a matter of weeks, and now she’s left deciding whether her destiny is even worth it to follow through anymore.

As she watches Daring and Rosabella grow closer, her heart swells; not with jealousy, but with a strange sense of pride that only a friend can have. She finally sees Daring not as someone she—or anybody else—expects him to be, but someone who is learning to discover himself. And if it helps him find peace, then that’s all she wants for him.

The topic of her own Happily Ever After is one that her friends tread carefully in the weeks that follow the Evil Queen’s downfall. Briar Beauty takes care to never mention Daring or Darling or any of the Charmings in her presence, and Ashlynn Ella begins meeting Hunter Huntsman in secret again because she doesn’t want to rub her relationship in Apple’s face.

It’s after the third time Apple asks Ashlynn where Hunter is, and Ashlynn finally slips up and replies, “Hunter who?” that Apple decides she’s had enough.

“Girls, I’m _fine_ ,” she says, perhaps for the hundredth time since they’d been back in school for the fall.

“We know!” Ashlynn’s voice is five octaves higher. “We’re not saying you’re not fine!”

Apple sighs. This isn’t what she wants; her friends having to hide their true feelings just to appease her, though perhaps it was what she’d expected from them so long ago. Before Raven, and the Rebels, and understanding the other side of the spectrum. She’d realised just how selfish she used to be to ensure her own Happily Ever After, not knowing (or caring) whom she’d hurt in the process.

She’s certainly grown since then.

“I’m serious, you guys.” Apple lowers her voice, the way she does when she _really_ wants to garner their attention, the way her mother had always prepared her for when she becomes queen, and she turns to Ashlynn. “Invite Hunter to lunch with us. I miss seeing you guys together.”

“Are—are you sure, Apple?” Ashlynn’s eyes are gleaming.

“I’m sure, Ashlynn. I told you, I’m fine.”

* * *

She hasn’t spoken to Darling Charming.

Not since The Day That No One Speaks Of; aka the day that Daring Charming learned what an identity crisis was, the day Apple’s foretold story came too soon, the day a soft, maidenly kiss woke her from the curse.

Funny how Apple remembers the kiss so clearly, like it is the last thing her mind would allow her to remember, and the days and weeks that followed have just been a hazy dream she walks in and out of. She remembers regaining consciousness that day in the forest, and the colours that adjusted in her vision, a blur of platinum blonde with blue streaks running down in curls, and Apple mindlessly, _stupidly_ asking, “Did Daring wake me up?”

She remembers the crestfallen look on the Princess Charming’s face as soon as she’d asked it, and not understanding why, not _then_.

Apple catches glimpses of her skittering about in school, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d say that Darling was avoiding her. This yearning is new for Apple; it hadn’t existed before, not when she thought she knew what lay before her. She doesn’t recognise the feeling that comes with seeing Darling, even from afar; the sudden rush of her blood, the stumble in her steps when they inadvertently make eye contact.

She used to marvel at how large Ever After High was, and now all she wants is someplace small enough that the two of them in it would feel like taking up space in a whole galaxy.

* * *

The day comes in a Science and Sorcery class on a drizzly Tuesday, when Professor Rumpelstilskin assigns them as partners. Apple smiles brightly at Darling as she sets her books down. She reaches for the gloves in the middle of the long workbench, and notices Darling inching away from her ever so slightly.

“I’m glad we’re partners,” Apple says, breaking the sharp silence that was threatening to cut the cool air between them. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Darling doesn’t reply, just turns her head briefly and gives a curt smile before turning away again. Apple feels a dagger twist somewhere in her chest.

“You know,” she continues, as she had always been taught by her mother, to put on a brave face in times of tribulation, “Science and Sorcery has never been my best subject. I don’t know what it is, I just can’t get the facts right.

“Professor Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t give any of us good grades, but something tells me you’re good at this stuff.” Apple smiles at her again, a genuinely warm smile that Darling finds it _oh so_ difficult to turn away from. “I heard about your pie quest with Ginger Breadhouse back in Wonderland. That was really smart.”

It’s Apple’s turn to blush; she’s showing too much, giving away her emotions too freely, and her mother would definitely disapprove of just how un-queenly she’s behaving.But she’s started speaking to Darling, and Darling is staring at her, and for some reason she can’t stop.

“You read a lot, don’t you? And—and you do a lot of research, so…” Apple feels the rubber gloves start to chafe her _stupidly_ delicate snow-white hands, “… so you can help me.”

“Only if you want me,” Darling finally replies and, realising what she said, blushes before she can turn away again, but not quickly enough for Apple to miss.

“I want you.”

* * *

It turns out Apple guessed right and Darling has been avoiding her because of the question she’d asked as soon as she woke up in the forest; the stupid, _accursed_ question that apparently left a deep enough impression on Darling that she’d taken it as a definite _No_.

They’re sitting on a patch of grass on the outskirts of the Enchanted Forest, just by the gazebo—where young lovers are naturally drawn to—but not in it, because they haven’t quite decided what they are just yet.

What Apple does know is they haven’t let go of each other’s hands for the past ten minutes, not since they’d run out of Science and Sorcery together as soon as the school bell went off, and she decided that her heart would carry her wherever Darling Charming would go, to the ends of the forest or the Earth, and her fingers had slipped so easily into Darling’s and Darling didn’t pull away, _Darling didn’t pull away_ , and now the sunlight is sinking but it’s casting a perfect glow over the Princess Charming’s figure, and then Apple just _knows_.

“What?” Darling asks, but it doesn’t sound defensive anymore, not when everything is out in the open already, and they’re holding hands like a pair of nervous childhood sweethearts out in an open field and _oh Grimm_ , Apple is looking at her like she’s worth something, and even though Darling has always known it herself, it feels so _real_ coming from the queen-to-be.

“Nothing.” Apple leans forward a little. “You just look kind of perfect right now.”

“Oh,” Darling whispers, and her chest tightens, because Apple’s lips are just inches away from her own, and she remembers so clearly the feeling, the sudden _desire_ she’d felt in the forest way back when, and now she doesn’t know what to do.

Except she does.

After a few more ardent reminders of why Happily Ever Afters are worth it after all, Apple leads Darling into the gazebo.


End file.
